Iranian-French cartoonist Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis, dead at 56

Marjane Satrapi, pictured at the Rome International Film Festival in 2012, was an advocate for women's freedom in Iran. (AP Photo: Alessandra Tarantino)

Comic book artist and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi is being mourned by the French arts community after her death at the age of 56.

Satrapi, who was born in Iran, was a committed advocate to furthering free speech and women's rights in her birth country.

She was most well-known for her graphic novel and film Persepolis, a coming-of-age tale set against the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Acclaimed Iranian-French cartoonist and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi, a prominent advocate for women's rights and the author of Persepolis, has died at 56, according to the office of French President Emmanuel Macron.

"Her passing marks the loss of a leading figure of French culture and an artist devoted to freedom, whose work carried a universal message and earned her immense international acclaim," the presidential office said in a statement on Thursday.

Mr Macron and his wife "pay tribute to a remarkable artist who transformed an Iranian childhood into a universal fable", the statement said.

News broadcaster BFM TV and other French media reported Satrapi "died of sadness" a little over a year after the death of her husband, Swedish film producer and actor Mattias Ripa, citing a statement from people close to the artist.

Ripa died at the age of 53 on April 8, 2025, with no cause of death publicly revealed.

Iran held rare screenings to small but fascinated audiences of the Oscar-nominated film Persepolis in February 2008.

The French Academy of Fine Arts, of which Satrapi was a member, expressed its deep sadness in a social media statement,

It paid tribute to "a passionate advocate for cinema and film education" who earlier this year created a foundation to help international students come to Paris to study film.

Satrapi is best known for her monochrome autobiographical comic book and film Persepolis, a coming-of-age tale set against the Islamic Revolution in her native Iran.

Persepolis won the Film Critics Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007 and the César award for best adapted screenplay in 2008, in addition to being nominated for best animated feature at the 2008 Oscars.

The film, which details her life in Tehran as the strong-willed daughter of intellectual Marxists, is a reminder that Iranians are just like everyone else, Satrapi said during an interview at Cannes in 2007.

Iranian authorities at the time protested the movie's inclusion at Cannes, sending a letter to the French embassy in Tehran.

Satrapi